Whoops, I posted this as a blank post about a week ago by accident (I scheduled it but forgot to work on it…). Anyway, here’s a quick look back at my trip to Arizona in March 2018!
I was in Phoenix for a conference, and decided to arrive a week earlier to do some exploring. I stayed at an AirBNB, first time using it and man this experience set the bar high! I stayed with a lady named Darlene, and she was the funniest old lady I’ve ever met! We had lots of great talks, played dominos, she made amazing food, and had a sweet old kitty. I also helped her set up Google Home, I still remember her shouting across the house “Hey Google, play Bob Dylan!” (I actually can’t remember if Bob Dylan was one of the artists she wanted to play, but it sounds right). Still probably my favorite AirBNB experience.
Darlene also lent me a bicycle and her car, so I was able to get out and go to some museums and tourist attractions, as well as some hiking spots:
Piestewa Peak
Formerly known as “Squaw Peak” before it was renamed as a sign of respect to Native Americans, this peak is easily accessible from the city, and was only a 30 minute bike ride from the AirBNB. If I lived in Phoenix, I would go here for workouts – it’s a short but sweet little trail. It took me about 30 mins to ascend the 1.78km trail (359m ascent). Quite busy and also quite steep. Got a great view of the area at the top, including many other mountains in the area.
Camelback Mountain
Another very popular hiking destination in close proximity to Phoenix is Camelback Mountain (named as such as it looks like a camel’s back from a distance!). This trail has two trails which meet at the top – Echo Canyon and Cholla.
I had heard that this mountain gets very busy, so I opted to drive to the less popular trailhead (Cholla). It is possible to do a point-to-point with return hike between the trailheads, but I just did the Cholla trail. Not quite as steep as Piestewa, but still a solid workout with great views. Total length of my hike was roughly 4.5km with around 430m of elevation gain.
Siphon Draw to Flatiron
This was my most intense hike of the trip. The Superstition Mountains (east of Phoenix) looked like a great place to explore, and after some research, I discivered that there were a few great hikes in Lost Dutchman State Park, including the Siphon Draw Trail.
I got up super early and drove to the Park, arriving at around 7am to begin my hike. It started off really flat through the desert and I saw a lot of cacti. Eventually, as the trail approached the mountain, it became a lot steeper and eventually became a scramble to the top of the Flatiron (according to Wikipedia, the last 10 yards of the trail was a Class 4!).
I brought 5L of water with me just to be safe, but it ended up being almost not enough as it was a really hot day with a lot of exposure to the sun. I also got lost in the scrambling section and had to do a bit of bushwhacking to get back to the trail. The view from the Flatiron was incredible!
At the time, my longest hike with the most elevation done. In total, the hike took about 4h 10 min roundtrip (not including lunch), gaining 1150m of elevation and travelling 10.2km. What a doozy!
Overall, this was an incredible trip and I cannot wait to return to this beautiful state (in the winter again of course!). My main targets include Sedona, Flagstaff, Humphreys Peak (highest point in Arizona), as well as, of course, do a rim-to-rim hike in the Grand Canyon!
Veg 'n' Alpine 